INTRODUCTION TO

LITERATURE
DEFINITION OF LITERATURE
TYPES OF LITERATURE
LITERARY STANDARDS
LITERARY GENRES
 NINIMEEF
LITERATURE IS FEMININE
SHE?
◦ Enduring expressions of significant human
experiences written in words, well-chosen and
arranged.
◦ Appreciation of writer’s style and aesthetic sense.
◦ Instill values, knowledge, and culture
 LITERATURE
◦ is a total preserved writings belonging to a given
language or people. (Webster Dictionary)
◦ is a written record of man’s best thoughts and feelings.
◦ gives us picture of life.
◦ faithful reproduction of life, executed in artistic pattern.
TYPES OF LITERATURE

WRITTEN ORAL
 ORAL LITERATURE
◦ literature of the ancient times.
◦ pleasure of being able to tell stories or expression
of themselves.
◦ handed down by the word of mouth.
 WRITTEN LITERATURE

◦ Use of pen by literary genius.

◦ More likely to be permanent in form than oral
literature.
SEVEN ELEMENTS OF MASTERPIECE
1. Permanence
2. Universality
3. Artistry
4. Intellectual value
5. Spiritual value
6. Style
7. Suggestiveness
 PERMANENCE
NENCEAMREP

◦ Stands through the ages and still opens new world

of meaning and experience.
◦ It has a lasting appeal and can be read repeatedly.
 UNIVERSALITY
VERSAIUNTILY

◦ Great literature appeals to anyone, anywhere,

anytime forever relevant.
◦ It deals with universal conditions, fundamental
truths and elemental feelings.
 TRIATRSY
ARTISTRY
◦ Great literature appeals to our aesthetic sense or
sense of beauty.
INTELLECTUAL VALUE
ETNICELLATUL ELAUV
◦ Stimulates our thought and enriches our mental life.
◦Makes us realize fundamental truths about life and
human.
 SPIRITUAL ELAUV
LUATPRISI VALUE

◦ Great literature inspires and brings out moral

values making us better persons.
◦It relates to God’s plan and purpose for the
humanity.
 STYLE
ELYST

◦ Great literature is marked with peculiar way of in

which the writer sees life, form his ideas and
express them distinctly.
◦ It should suit the content.
 SUGGESTIVENESS
SENNEVITSSGGUE

◦ Great literature appeals to our emotions, stirs

imagination and moves us deeply.
◦ envokes visions over and beyond the level of
ordinary life and experience.
 LITERARY GENRES

PROSE POETRY
 PROSE

◦Discourse that follows the usual flow of

conversation which uses sentences to express
ideas, feelings, actions.
 FICTION
PROSE
NON-
FICTION
 FICTION
◦ Literary work which is a result of author’s
imagination.
◦ Written stories that about people and events which
are NOT real.

NON- FICTION
◦ Writing that is about facts or real events.
 SHORT STORY

NOVEL

FICTION PLAY

LEGEND

FABLE
 ESSAY

ORATION

NON- BIOGRAPHY

FICTION
AUTOBIOGRAPHY

NEWS

LETTERS, DIARIES
AND JOURNALS
 NARRATIVE

POETRY DRAMATIC

LYRIC
 POETRY
◦ “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings taking
its origin from emotions”
◦ combines sounds and meaning of language to
create and express ideas and feelings.
◦ uses figurative language and imagery.
◦ expressed in regimented manner by the force of
stanza, meter, rhyme, and other regulating devices.
 EPICS
NARRATIVE
POETRY
BALLAD
 DRAMATIC POETRY
◦ Tell stories but one or more characters act out
the poem.
◦ William Shakespeare is one of most famous
dramatic poets.
◦ Dramatic Monologue- story is told by only one
character.
 HAIKU

ODE
LYRIC
POETRY ELEGY

SONNET

SONG
 HAIKU
◦ one of the shortest lyric poems.
◦ Japanese verse of 17 syllables arranged in
three lines. (5-7-5)
 ODE
◦ serious elaborate poem full of high praises
and noble feelings.
Example:
Ode to Evening by William Collins
 ELEGY
◦ poem of meditation on life and death.
Many elegies mourn the death of famous
person or close friend.
 SONNET
◦ 14-line lyric poem with certain pattern of
rhyme and rhythm.
Example:
How Do I Love Thee? By Elizabeth
Browning
 SONG
◦ lyric poem intended to be sung.

Example:
Blowing in the wind by Bob Dylan